dCS/VTL/Wilson

"I'm sorry but we have to start packing up." said Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio politely.

"One more song? Please?"

"OK, one more song..."

It was Sunday at 4:00pm the official closing time of RMAF 2013 but people were still coming into the Wilson/VTL room. The word was out. I certainly received it loud and clear.

"Have you heard the Wilson/VTL room at the Hyatt? You have to."

This year RMAF spilled over into a few rooms in the Hyatt which was fine by me since that's where I was staying. The system in the room consisted of the Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF speakers ($199,500/pair) with a pair of Thor’s Hammer subwoofers ($21,500/each) being driven by the VTL Siegfried Reference Monoblocks Series II ($65,000), the TL-7.5 Series II Reference Line Preamplifier ($20,000), and the dCS Vivaldi stack (about $108,000 with transport). The room was big, the price tag bigger, the sound bigger still.

Peter McGrath played a few DSD selections including a Debussy piece for piano and violin (I didn't note which one) that was originally recorded by David Wilson to tape. And it was simply staggering. The emotional connection to the music was immediate, I nearly teared up (really), reminding me that appreciating music reproduction often takes some amount of work. Some amount of getting accustomed to the sound of the system. Here in the room with the half a million dollar system, the connection to the music was immediate, physical, and above all else soul stirring.

David Abel and Julie Steinberg live in Oakland, a few miles from me. I don't know how much David is playing these days, but Julie is certainly active. Lord it would be great if some show promoter brought them in to perform at the time that Wilson/dCS/VTL/friends were doing their demo. They are wonderful musicians.